Conducted at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) facility in Boulder, Colo., the first phase of the PSCR testing is designed to test basic functionality of LTE gear, including performance and coverage capabilities. Motorola spent most of 2011 completing Phase 1, which was “a good exercise,” according to Rick Keith, the company’s director of product management.

“You always learn something any time you have the opportunity to poke at your network and ensure that it’s fully operational by putting it through some testing — especially by the qualified people at PSCR,” Keith said.

In addition to testing infrastructure such as LTE base stations from Ericsson, the Motorola solution completing the Phase 1 testing included mobile and portable modems, Keith said. Motorola hopes to complete Phase 2 of the PSCR testing program during the third quarter, he said.

Under FCC rules, public-safety LTE vendors building equipment for the nationwide 700 MHz broadband network for public safety are required to participate in the PSCR testing program. Motorola is the second vendor to complete Phase 1 testing, according to Emil Olbrich, project leader for NIST/OLES. Alcatel-Lucent last year finished Phase 1 and the first part of Phase 2 testing, which focuses on in-depth lab testing, he said.

Olbrich said the second part of Phase 2 testing primarily addresses alarms associated with the network, while Phase 3 — a testing program that has not yet been published — will focus on interoperability testing.